...there was Hanna-Barbara and their offerings in the mid 60s, when you could still do traditional cell animation on the cheap, but only just.This is a brilliant TV show for kids that aired on Saturday and eventually Sunday mornings, as well as sometimes serving as the cap of late morning cartoon offerings after it's initial run in the 60s.Huck, the inventive hay seed with his ragged pants, straw hat and vest, Tom Sawyer the more citified but still southern boy, and Becky, the caring female of the trio. They travel from one story book to the next, venturing beyond Samuel Clemens initial offerings, and shedding the shackles of literary convention to see the world. Other authors are mixed in with Mark Twain's characters, and give old settings and stories new life with the mish-mashing of characters in settings distinctly apart from their usual experience.The three young adventurers go from the South Seas, to India, to Europe, to the Arctic and worlds beyond. Contrary to the intention of the producers, I was not induced to read those other works because of this show, but I did find the show entertaining for what it was. I can't say I initially liked it a great deal, but it was engaging. And, after a time, it just became a habit to watch. In this sense, it was a good show. It was different from all the other animated offerings at the time.Additionally, the show was a half hour long. So it was a long "Serious" cartoon so to speak. Great adventure stories, clever, smart and adventurous characters who knew how to handle trouble and danger, as well as make new friends.It's an oldie but a goodie. They don't make 'em like this anymore, but I'm sure someone will revisit the concept.Regrettably there're few episodes available. It would be one of the few Hanna=Barbara cartoons I'd purchase.If you get a chance, give it a look with your kids and enjoy. :)

"The New Adventures of Huck Finn" and aired in prime time on NBC-TV on Sunday evenings during the 1968-69 TV season starting at 7:00 P.M. as a lead in for the 'Wonderful World of Disney' show.The series is better remembered by those who are younger (I was born in 1980) as a segment on the syndicated/Cartoon Network series 'The Banana Splits and Friends'.The Banana Splits originally aired on Saturday Mornings on NBC-TV as an hour long show called 'The Banana Splits Adventure Hour' starting in 1968. Later, in 1973 (and continuing into the 1990's) it was sold to local TV stations as a half-hour series called 'The Banana Splits and Friends'. In was in this later syndicated version that 'The New Adventures of Huck Finn' were added (older Hanna-Barbara series from the 1960's where added to the Banana Splits to make more episodes for repeats).The 'Huck Finn' segments featured live actors portraying the Mark Twain characters Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher living in an animated world trying to get back home. The three young people were chased into this world by an animated character named Injun Joe. Throughout the run of the series, Huck and friends try to evade Injun Joe while trying to get back to the early 19th Century and their home U.S. state of Missouri. The series is similar to such Disney movies as 'Pete's Dragon' and 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' by combining live actors with animation. Only in this case the actors where live and everyone and everything around them was animation. 'Cartoon Network' spin off 'Boomerang' airs repeats of the 'Banana Splits and Friends' shows that air the 20 or so episodes of 'The New Adventures of Huck Finn'.

This was at the time,one innovative series that featured both live action and animated and to make it special,it took the characters of Mark Twain's classic,"Huckleberry Finn",which consisted of Tom Sawyer,Huck Finn,and Becky Thatcher to strange and exotic places where they visited any land,time in history and it was always they were facing constant danger at every turn in which they would encounter some menacing villain or in other aspects creatures from other places. In other words they went each week for one animated world to the next where in some of the episodes,they would face some kind of predicament in which the show always ended in a cliffhanger until next week,where the conclusion of the story was to be continued."The New Adventures of Huck Finn",premiered on NBC-TV in September of 1968 and it ended in September of 1969. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show lasted one season,producing 20 episodes,which when NBC canceled the series in 1969,repeats were aired on different days,until the 1970's where some of the episodes were in syndication for the half-hour version of "The Banana Splits"."The New Adventures Of Huck Finn",was a brilliant premise that came on Sunday evenings at the 7:00 hour where when it first premiered in September of 1968,it went up against some very tough competition which featured the shows,"Lassie","Gentle Ben",and at the same time the science-fiction adventure series,"Land Of The Giants". It was followed on Sunday nights by "The Wonderful World Of Disney",and not to mention "The Ed Sullivan Show". This was a excellent and highly innovative concept for Hanna-Barbera,which was in fact the first series produced by the company,and one of the first shows to blend in live action with animation. Also,this was a first for the studio,especially in prime-time and it was something that Hanna-Barbera did,and this was two years after one of the most highly successful animated series in prime-time history,and the longest-running,"The Flintstones",which ran for six years in prime-time television.Speaking of this series by the way,I saw some of the episodes as a child and it blew me away with the non-stop action mixed in with some of breathtaking adventure and high-flying animation that kept it's viewers hooked,and me too. When I found out that the network that aired it,NBC-TV canceled the series,a lot of its audience was devastated,and this may have to do with the show's demise,which was at the time quite expensive to create as well as produced. It should have been given the chance to succeed,and it could however have worked very well with if the network decided to moved the series to Saturday Mornings. But they didn't. Speaking of the main villain,no better actor at the time was more menacing and more evil than Ted Cassidy who gave the show its juice and he was simply magnificent. Ted Cassidy,by the way,was a more sinister actor in some of the roles he played,and that was a role that was far better than the one he had opposite,"The Addams Family". See some of the episodes and you'll know why. As he chased our young friends from one animated world to the next,you'll never know what to expect since in some of the animated villains they faced really looked just like Injun Joe!!!.....As for Tom Sawyer(Kevin Schultz),Becky Thatcher(Lu Ann Haslam),and Huck Finn(Micheal Shea),they always were faced with the constant peril and sudden danger everywhere they went. Some of the episodes were directed by the best in the business and it consisted of Hollingsworth Morse,Ezra Stone,Virgil W. Vogel,and in some segments by William Hanna and Joesph Barbera. One of the best episodes of that series is called "The Eye Of Doogerah",and it is something to see!!!Too bad that this series is never shown anymore. Recently,Cartoon Network's sister station Boomerang has resurrected some for the episodes after being out of action or for one point,missing for decades. They showed these episodes in its entirely during the network's programming of Boomeraction,which consisted some of the greatest Hanna-Barbera action/adventure animated cartoons anywhere!!! Not to be missed!

Cartoon Network apparently has this episode in its extensive Hanna-Barbera library. They just showed an episode of "The New Adventures Of Huck Finn" on their Saturday morning program "Boomerang". The episode was entitled "The Eye Of Doogerah".Unfortunately, the Boomerang program just shows random episodes of old Saturday morning cartoons, but at least this rather unique (if not odd) program has been preserved for now.